Toms Shoe Company to Donate $5 Million to Increase Universal Background Checks

Nov 30, 2018

By: Teresa Mull

Toms, a company that donates a pair of shoes that look as if they were homemade out of duct tape, has announced that it will use $5 million to advance universal background checks.

Fortune.com reports:

The announcement means the company will evolve its giving model to include donations to organizations working to end gun violence.

The campaign, which Toms also announced on Twitter, directs users to Toms’ website where the company has created a system by which users enter in their information and a physical postcard is sent to their representative, urging them to pass universal background check legislation.

Blake Mycoskie, Toms’ founder, told Jimmy Fallon background checks are “something that 90% of Americans are in favor of…” Research by John Lott, however, shows:

“States with these background checks experienced an increase of 15 percent in per capita rates of mass public shooting fatalities. They also saw a 38 percent increase in the rate of injury. Nor is there evidence that expanded background checks reduce rates of any type of violent crime, including mass public shootings, suicide, murder of police officers and domestic violence against women. Other academic research by economists and criminologists consistently confirms this.”